Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week


What I thought was going to be a full week on the road ended up only being a handful of days out of the office instead.  However, being a bit under the weather left me trying to catch up on my sleep when I was not in Court or traveling for a hearing.  As a result, I tried to narrow things down and pick out the most relevant topics/articles I came across this week.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


New EEOC Nominees Announced

On July 3rd, the White House announced the two nominees for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC").  The two nominees put forth for confirmation by the Senate are Wage and Hour Division official Keith Sonderling and current EEOC Member Charlotte Burrows.  Of note, Sonderling is the Republican nominee and Burrows is the Democratic nominee.  I would expect both nominations to proceed in unison with both Sonderling and Burrows confirmed to the EEOC.  Should that happen, the EEOC would have a 3 to 1 Republican majority (with one vacant seat remaining open.)


Ahead of Amazon Prime Day, Minnesota Amazon Warehouse Workers Plan Strike

Some readers might have heard that next week is Amazon Prime Day, when many items are on sale or steeply discounted for a few hours.  Needless to say, this annual event often brings a lot of attention and money to the company (which in turn requires a lot of man power to process orders as they come in.)  Ahead of the July 15th prime day, warehouse workers at one of Amazon's plants in Minnesota announced they will stage a six hour work stoppage to bring attention to their labor issues with the company.  As the article from Bloomberg points out, Amazon's US workers have not walked off the job during big sales days (like Prime Day or Black Friday.)  Whether this planned strike will result in any tangible change remains to be seen...but it should certainly draw eyes to the issues raised by these workers.


Equal Pay Takes Center Stage as US Women's National Team Celebrates in NYC

Sally Goldenberg wrote an article on Wednesday that made note of the prevailing theme at the US Women's National Team's celebration in NYC after winning the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.  As Goldenberg writes, City Council Member Helen Rosenthal repeatedly shouted "Pay them!" at the celebration, again bringing attention to the ongoing equal pay fight by these players.  Notably, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio (who is running for the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination), has indicated that if elected, he would "insist" that Congress amend the 1978 Amateur Sports Act and require pay equity between men and women in all professional sports.  Going one step further, Mayor DeBlasio has expressed his desire to order the US Treasury Department to revoke the tax exempt status of the US Soccer Federation, if the amendment to the 1978 Amateur Sports Act bogged down in Congress.  As I pointed out yesterday, I do not think this equal pay matter will be dissipating anytime soon.


Raising the Federal Minimum Wage Rate to $15/Hour Predicted to Eliminate 1.3 Million Jobs

The Congressional Budget Office ("CBO") released a report at the start of the week in which it was predicted that if Congress passed a bill raising the federal minimum wage rate to $15/hour (as many Democrats in Congress are pushing to do), that would result in the loss of 1.3 million jobs.  While the CBO study is not a definitive report on the matter, it should serve as additional evidence for those opposing such a drastic raise the federal minimum wage rate.  (For those wondering, the current federal minimum wage rate is $7.25/hour.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...
1 comment
Read more